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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25100032">This House Holds Horrors</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/scottsalem/pseuds/scottsalem'>scottsalem</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Magnus Archives (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bugs &amp; Insects, Dissociation, Elias does need a good kick in the shins though, Fog, Horror, How Do I Tag, Mice, Mountains, Original Statement (The Magnus Archives), Psychological Horror, Screenplay/Script Format, Self-Insert, The Corruption, The Lonely - Freeform, The Magnus Archives Season 4, the vast</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 06:20:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,297</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25100032</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/scottsalem/pseuds/scottsalem</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Statement of Scott Salem regarding his family cottage in the middle of Appalachia. Statement written July 5th, 2019, in the form of a letter to Jonathan Sims, Archivist.<br/>Recording by Johnathan Sims, Archivist.”</p><p>This cottage in the mountains is just chock full of fear entities.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>This House Holds Horrors</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1"> <em>(tape recorder clicks on)</em> </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">THE ARCHIVIST:</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Statement of Scott Salem regarding his family cottage in the middle of Appalachia. Statement written July 5th, 2019, in the form of a letter to Jonathan Sims, Archivist.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Recording by Johnathan Sims, Archivist.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Statement begins:</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">STATEMENT:</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Dear Jon,</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“First of all, I’d like to establish that I know about all of it- the entities, the Archives, all of that crap. That might surprise you, Jon, but you’re not the only one who knows a bit too much about how the world works to be comfortable in your own head. Also- I’m turning 17 in a little more than a month. I don’t know why I mention it, but it felt pertinent for you to know that I’m basically still a kid.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Now my dad’s family owns this cottage in the mountains- a relic with creaking floorboards that basically stands as a big old wooden monument to the Salem family’s weird and obscure relevance to the world of entertainment. My grandpa wrote a few songs that got some pretty good traction and, though no one knows his name anymore, we still get some alright royalty money for it, and his old house as a vacation home.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“It never seemed like it to me growing up, but this thing is massive. My dad’s one of 5 kids, so of course it would be. This gets me to my first point- the Lonely. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I have only once seen this house with every bedroom occupied, and it felt <em>very</em> weird. My aunt has a lot of kids, but I’m an only child, and we’re not that close with them, so the one time we came up here while she was here just... felt wrong.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I remember sitting there with my little cousin, only halfway listening to whatever she was talking about, and hearing the laughs of my other cousins coming from the next room, just feeling like I’d stepped into an entirely different cottage than the one I grew up with. Somehow I felt even more separated from them in that version of the house than I ever had at Christmases, or even when we were a state apart.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“This last time I visited, it was raining when we got there, and the house is so high up on the mountain that we were in the clouds as we pulled into the driveway.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“After unpacking, my dad and I stepped out onto the porch, and the mist curled around our ankles and made it impossible to see the tops of the trees above us. In the distance, the surrounding mountains were blanketed with a thick haze, making them look even farther away. And down below, where you could normally see the valley like a tiny toy city, was only white. It was like when the map in a video game hasn’t finished loading yet, and the immediate area is just floating in a void of empty code. I felt so detached from everything, even my brain felt isolated within my skull. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Even without the fog, the house just feels sad. I think that’s why it felt so wrong to be filled with laughter and joyous conversation- I’m so used to coming up here and seeing all of these empty beds, this house that was built for this huge family that I’ll never really have, and just feeling the quiet sadness radiating off of the walls.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Being empty so much of the year, the family trust has a caretaker hired to clean up and keep the house in order. Long story short, she doesn’t. Hence my second point- the Corruption.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“This place has been riddled with bugs and mice for as long as I can remember. At one point we were stopping here for the night on the way to visit my dad’s family and I remember my mom had me take a sleeping bag and sleep on top of the covers with a pillow I brought so we wouldn’t have to take the time to wash the mouse poop out of the sheets. To this day, the back of my neck gets crawly when I think about that night- laying in my sleeping bag, trying so desperately not to think about how many bugs could easily crawl into my ear as I slept, or whether or not the last person who’d slept in that bed had lice.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“And don’t even get me started on the mosquitoes. The number of times I have sprayed myself with such a thick cloud of bug spray that I felt like a cartoon character with a visible cloud around me, only to find myself riddled with red weals the next day... needless to say, it’s a lot.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“And then there’s the Vast. </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“This is the one with the most connections, I think, because the whole place is designed to make your stomach drop.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“That view of the mountains from the balcony, it stretches on for miles and miles, and it really makes you appreciate the endlessness of sky. And it’s visible from just about every room in the house, which is covered in large bay windows, wall to wall.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“The two sides of the house are connected with bridges, the upstairs one creaky and slatted wood, the downstairs one an arc that looks completely flat. Like it was designed to trip clumsy kids like me whose legs are too gangly for their bodies to keep up with.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“The two staircases are both equally panic inducing- one of which always slightly steeper than I remember it, the other of which being without a railing. Both of them are hardwood, and very slippery in socks.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“And the driveway, which wraps around the house and goes under the porch, is a hard right turn off of the main mountain road, and slopes at a good 45 degree angle.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“The best part is- I just found out that the house originally belonged to my great-grandfather, not my grandpa like I originally thought. I haven’t really looked into it, but I know at least that my dad’s side is of English origins. So, along that line of thinking, there’s a possibility that my family is related to the Crews. While reading this to my dad, he even mentioned that his grandma’s maiden name was Crewe, so maybe the extra <em>e </em>at the end got added on in customs? Food for thought.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Anyway, do with this what you will, I don’t really know what I expect to come from this, but thought it might be an interesting piece to add into your investigation. Something about ‘entities working together to build a fear house’ really tickles me.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I’ve attached some photos of the things I’ve talked about, and I posted a house tour on my Tiktok account.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Have fun!</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“~S. Salem</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“P.S.- kick Elias in the shins for me, okay Jon?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">THE ARCHIVIST:</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Statement ends.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <em> <span class="s1">(The Archivist chuckles.)</span> </em>
</p><p class="p2">“Kick Elias in the shins,” eh? Well, as much as I’d like to, I doubt that would be possible for a miasma of reasons.</p><p class="p2">
  <em>(pause, then the Archivist clears his throat.)</em>
</p><p class="p2">Following up on this statement is, understandably, rather difficult. I almost wish I had found this when I was over in America, that way I might have been able to track this Salem kid down—maybe get some more information about his family, and what he means when he says he knows about “all that crap,” as he put it.</p><p class="p2">Though his knowledge of the entities and our institute is... troubling, I think what most unsettles me is the idea of several entities working together to build such a house. What things could such partnerships do if put to other uses?</p><p class="p2">Like he said, this is most definitely “food for thought.”</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">End recording.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <em> <span class="s1">(tape recorder clicks off.)</span> </em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Wow okay, been a bit, huh? I totally have Magnus Archivist brain rot right now, and this was kinda inspired by a tiktok I posted about my actual family cottage that kinda blew up, soooo... yeah.<br/>Anyway, hope you liked it! Constructive criticism is always appreciated. :)<br/>~S. Salem</p></blockquote></div></div>
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